Page 73 of A Dirty Business
As if sensing it was okay, Trace moved in. He touched my arm, lightly, and began steering me away. “What happened between you two?”
“He told me to get out of his face while he wasn’t feeling murderous. That’s a threat.”
He cursed under his breath. “Yeah, well, that’s Ashton.”
“You can’t say something like that to someone like me.”
“I’m thinking he’s realizing that, too, right about now.” He let go of my arm but tapped the back of my hand. He jerked his head toward a sidewalk going around the other side of the house. “Who are you here with?”
“My roommate and her boyfriend.”
“Come on.” He was leading the way until we cleared the side of the house and pulled out his keys, going toward the vehicles.
I stopped. “What? No.”
He stopped too. “Jess, you need to listen to me. You should not be here. There are people here who have connections to my family that wedon’t want them to know about you. The more you’re here, the more you’ll get on their radar. I know you have threatened and pleaded with me enough to leave you alone, but I’m being totally up front here. I can’t,not here. You cannot be here.”
“Kelly. Justin.”
“Justin is protected. And while she’s with him, so is she. You’re not, and I’m not talking about your safety. I’m talking about my uncle asking questions about you, and then about your aunt, and then her husband. Are you following where I’m going?”
My chest felt like it was caving into me, but damn. Yeah. I was following.
I clipped my head to the vehicles. “Which one is yours?”
He led the way to an SUV, and as he got into the driver’s seat, I got into the passenger side. I was pulling my phone out as he started the engine.
“Who are you calling?”
Kelly picked up just as he was asking. I raised my voice, trying to talk over him. “Hey!”
He grimaced but pushed down the accelerator as we sped off.
“Where are you?” Kelly dropped her voice to a whisper. “Okay, can I tell you how freaked I am right now? Justin is amazing and all, but this family of his is terrifying. They’re terrifying. I did this already with my ex, and you see how that ended up. He cheated on me with seventeen women. I mean, yeah. My ex doesn’t have the family connections that Justin does, but they were still well off, and they had expectations. I don’t like families that have expectations. I’m a no-expectation girlfriend from now on, or I’d like to be, but ugh. Jess. It’s Justin! Why does he have to be so amazing? Also, where are you? They have free martinis here, and they’re free! Did I already say that they’re free? I’ve had two already. I’m going to be drunk before Justin gets around to introducing me to his aunt, and then what’ll happenafter that? She’ll not be impressed. I’m sloppy and sad when I drink martinis. Where are you?!”
“Um.” That was a lot to digest. I shared a look with Trace, who I was seeing was on his phone too. “I’m—uh—I got a call, and I have to head back to the city.”
“What?! What’s wrong? You need to leave? I can grab Justin.”
“No, no, no. I’m, uh, I’m already leaving. I got a car and I’m going back.” So, lying. Me. To my best friend in the whole world.
I was going to hell.
“You got a car?”
“Someone came in with an Uber, and I grabbed it when they were leaving. It worked out perfectly.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“Yeah. So. I’ll see you later then?”
“I think Justin really is going to ask our boss if we can have the night off, so it might not be till tomorrow. Please tell me you’re going bowling on Sunday? You’ve missed too much. They’re missing you.”
The whole concave sensation in my chest was happening again, this time from guilt. “I’ll be there. You’ll be with Justin until then?” I sensed Trace watching me and knew he’d overheard the last part of my conversation.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen after, so yeah. Just in case. If anything we’ll go back to his place. We have a lot to talk about.”
I softened my voice. “Are you going to be okay?”
